Functional Medicine

“Genetics load the gun, environment pulls the trigger.”

Functional Medicine (FM) is an evidence-based, patient-centered and holistic way of looking at your health. What does that actually mean? We are not solely looking at treating your symptoms, but also want to know what roads led to your illness, pain or dysfunction. Why did you develop an autoimmune disease, or pre-diabetes, sleep problems, or skin rashes, etc.? Beyond your genetics, disease and illness do not arise from a void. Your lifestyle is as important. Your diet, as part of your “environment,” has a profound impact on how your genes will be expressed, or not. 

Nutrition and functional medicine

Sound nutrition is absolutely fundamental to resolving most health issues and is an integral part of practicing functional medicine. If each of your 10 trillion cells is not receiving adequate nutrients from your diet, those cells, and the systems they belong to (heart, lungs, gut, brain, liver, etc.) will eventually weaken. 

Functional medicine offers that “deep dive” into your life that you may be craving

Entering into a functional medicine approach is exciting! Everyone is curious about how their situation may have developed. It’s a very personal investigation. You are empowered and involved. Your practitioner is allied with you. 

As a FM practitioner in a nutrition practice I primarily see myself as an educator about how your unique body works best and then devising a plan together. When appropriate I may suggest some saliva, urine or stool testing. I do always stress the basics of a nutrient dense, plant-based diet, perhaps intermittent fasting, adequate sleep, movement, laughter, and anything that brings you peace. FM is very keen on how stress affects the different body systems. For instance, I have rarely seen a cancer case that didn’t have a major stressor in the previous year or two.  The body just can’t keep up with the repair needs. In a session we spend time ferreting out the various burdens and try to free the body of them as much as possible. Often people report that after a few months of chosen lifestyle changes their overall health is better. These positive changes will translate to improved wellbeing, increased energy and a clearer mind, as well as the reduced risk of chronic disease later in life.

Similarities between Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine

Chinese Medicine practitioners are looking for various stagnations and/or deficiencies of energy (Qi) as a fundamental cause of disease. The treatment strategy is to reduce the excess stagnation and tonify the weaknesses. The Functional Medicine nutritionist’s correlates of excess and deficiency would be language would include language like inflammation, toxicity, adrenal stress, food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies, and epigenetics to understand the root cause of disease. The two disciplines are also similar in that they both use a systems approach to health. When one system is affected, others are or will be as well, and it will reverberate through the whole system given enough time.  For instance, your emotional “system” can instantly affect your gut via the “gut/brain” connection. The two ideologies have many commonalities expressed in different languages. It’s quite remarkable and beautiful. In the end it’s all the same language.